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Thursday, June 12, 2014

Then and Now Blogfest... goes Down Below

Today's the day! Well, right now it's the night before the day, but I feel getting a jump on it. In any case, it's time for Then and Now, a blogfest hosted by the Armchair Squid, Nicki Elson, Suze, and Nancy Mock. The idea is to celebrate some things (like movies) that were important to us in our younger days, and to revisit them and see whether they've aged as gracefully as we have. :-)

I already spilled the beans that I would be re-watching the 1987-1989 TV show Beauty and the Beast. I ended up watching 11 out of the 22 episodes of the show's first season. I'm not sure if my thoughts will gel into one continuous narrative, but let me just start typing and see how far down the rabbit hole -- or New York City subway tunnel -- I go.

First, I was pleasantly surprised to see a name in the credits that many people will recognize. Although the show was created by Ron Koslow, a major force behind it was fantasy writer George R. R. Martin (now infamous for his long & convoluted beardGame of Thrones). He wrote many of the best episodes, and produced nearly all of them. Although I'm not into GoT, I can see him starting to develop the ear for moral ambiguities, idealistic crusades, and heartbreaking plot twists for which he's now well known.

On the surface the show is a love story, even if it's based only loosely on the original fairy tale. The trope that recurs again and again, though, is how romance can be the conduit to discovering one's highest and truest ideals. Maybe one can never live up to those ideals with 100% fidelity, but just knowing they're there is a steadying influence in a chaotic world. Even the other people who are around Vincent and Catherine's love are energized, vivified by its power.

I'm probably apt to underplay the twists and turns of the love story itself. I must say that, other than the obligatory action-adventure plots (straight out of Knight Rider, Starsky & Hutch, and cousins) the love story is the most hackneyed part of the show. Let me just copy and paste some thoughts from my notes, with no editing:

Ha! As characters, Vincent & Catherine are such children! so
over-wrought... (writing attempts to be fairy-tale-ish; is often
treacly) Back then, I was wannabe Byronic, too.

The "such children" line would have shocked the hell out of 20-year-old Cygnus, let me tell you. I looked up -- way up -- to that love story, and probably idealized it far too literally.

The other major aspect of the show was the utopian community Down Below the streets of New York, created by tragic figures "Father" and "Paracelsus" in the 1950s. Out of the unfairness of the world above came an attempt to build a more just and loving society. It looked like they had roughly 100 people in those secret caverns and chambers, and they were aided by selfless "helpers" up above. The scenes down below are by far my favorites, and the warm ambience, cluttered bookshelves, and soft background clanging of pipes (which they use for Morse code communication) paints a serene picture of paradise to me.

Paradise doesn't come without costs, of course. There's the danger of their world being discovered. Some denizens are probably on the wrong side of the law, even if they've been redeemed by the depths. There's also the issue of Vincent, the mutated (?) lion-beast-man with the soul of a poet. He was discovered on the steps of St. Vincent's hospital as a baby, and was raised lovingly by Father down below. If the sunlit world got a hold of him, one can only imagine terrible fates ranging from John Merrick's sideshow to E.T.'s hazmat-suited goons. Each night-time journey up to Catherine's balcony comes with a universe of peril.

Throughout the first season, the stakes kept getting raised. I'll admit that my comment about the leads being "such children" comes from the earliest episodes, when it seemed like too much too fast. But they grew into their sturm und drang. After a while, good people started dying. Vincent found a worthy adversary in the Nietzschean Paracelsus. Catherine found it ever-more psychologically draining to simultaneously be a good district attorney and keep all these secrets -- including the most life-affirming and transformative love she'd ever experienced -- from the other people in her life.

As I hinted in my earlier post, it didn't last. At least they didn't maintain an ever-static status quo, to keep the series going. Oh, George. Your Red Wedding is nothing to me, after the events of the cliffhanger between seasons 2 and 3. I didn't re-watch these. I'm not sure I ever want to.

Strangely, my mind kept thinking about the long term. Wondering how much of the self-imposed secretiveness of the world below was because of the need to protect Vincent. What would happen decades into the future, after Vincent's passing? I kept thinking about how some of the youngest people down there -- inventive Mouse, bold Jamie, impetuous Kipper -- could someday lead their community back up into the sunlight.

Maybe they would have kept Vincent and Catherine's love in their hearts, even after all those years. The ones rejected by society, who found redemption down below, could then help energize, vivify, and redeem the rest of us.

31 comments:

'If the sunlit world got a hold of him, one can only imagine terrible fates ranging from John Merrick's sideshow to E.T.'s hazmat-suited goons.'

Ha!

Okay, first let me say that I'm really chewing on the fact that Martin wrote so many of the episodes. I like your description of those things which characterize his oeuvre: moral ambiguities, idealistic crusades, and heartbreaking plot twists. Not a bad way to go down in the books.

I love, too, the idea of 20-year-old Cygnus being shocked by the wizened old cynic that he is now ;). No, I jest, of course. You still have one of the most open and childlike hearts I've come across, despite the heft of your considerable education and experience.

Finally, it's interesting that there are episodes you're not sure you want to rewatch. I have a sense that will be a recurring theme with the posts, today. (Tomorrow. I've posted early, too. No surprise there, I'm sure.)

I somehow never even heard of this series. The down below is intriguing, and I do like the idea of Vincent climbing above for Catherine. It's a very sad thing to have to keep love secet---half the fun is shouting abou it.

Very interesting trek through your mind as you revisited this past favorite. Thanks for joining the fest!

It was charming in lots of ways. And cheesy... you mention Vincent climbing up walls to his love. They also often showed him riding on the roofs of subway cars to get to her (when he psychically sensed she was in danger). Somehow time & distance didn't matter, but the commercial breaks did. :-)

Idealized love - a common theme in the posts I've seen so far and sure to be so for more. Stories in general are good at catching the initial spark of love but are often inadequate in appreciating the real-life complexities.

I remember this series and caught a couple of them. But I didn't watch much TV back then...too busy working all the time, especially those years...tripping the light fantastic as a model in NYC....Crazy times!

But it obviously has so bearing and is enjoyable. Thanks for featuring it today....

Hey, a fellow fan of the show! Awesome. This is true... it was much before the mainstreaming of geek culture that we're living through now. That's why I think the writers initially didn't stretch that much... there were plenty of crooked dockworkers, Chinatown mobs, and rubbed-out informants. Then they got more comfortable with the weirdness of the concept and started to leave that stuff behind.

I do like that many shows these days are envisioned as finite affairs -- with beginnings, middles, and ends. Many also run for shorter mini-seasons (10 to 15 episodes), followed by a breather of up to a full year, so the writers can catch their breath and think of another major "chunk" of the story.

I remember this show but I don't think I ever got to watch any of them. I didn't realize that it was an early work of George R.R. Martin... very interesting! I think I'll check Netflix & Hulu to see if they have any of the episodes. Thanks for sharing this on our Bloghop!Nancy at Hungry Enough To Eat Six

Yup, and after this show, she must have gone and worked out for a year before making Terminator 2. The Beast made good in sci-fi circles, too... mostly for voice-over work in cartoons, but also as Hellboy.